ABSTRACT
English business letter has been an important and indispensable tool for us to
exchange information in global economy. Therefore, writing the efficient letters will
determine the success of business communication.
In order to find out the effective ways to write business letters, the study
intended to analyze inquiry letters and collection letters in terms of speech acts and
politeness strategies.
The study began with the literature review on speech acts and politeness
strategies. Then both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in data
analysis to answer two research questions. The findings of the study presented speech
acts used in two kinds of letters and indicated the most dominant speech act. Besides,
tone and appeal which were two aspects of politeness strategies were investigated
carefully. From that, the suggestions for writing effective letters were drawn out.
This study hopefully makes a contribution an effective approach to the business
correspondence study.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACCEPTANCE i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENT iv
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vii
PART I: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Objectives of the study 2
3. Research questions 2
4. Scope of the study 2
5. Significance of the study 3
6. Method of the study 3
7. Organization of the study 3

1.1.2. Representatives in inquiry letters 25
1.1.3. Expressives in inquiry letters 26
1.1.4. Commissives in inquiry letters 27
1.2. Overview of the use of Speech acts in inquiry letters 27
1.3. Realization of Speech acts used in collection letters 30
iii
1.3.1. Representatives in collection letters 30
1.3.2. Directives in collection letters 32
1.3.3. Expressives in collection letters 35
1.3.4. Declarations in collection letters 37
1.3.5. Commissives in collection letters 38
1.4. Overview of the use of Speech acts in collection letters 39
2. An analysis of inquiry letters and collection letters in terms of
politeness strategies
41
2.1. Application of politeness strategies in inquiry letters 41
2.1.1. Tone 41
2.1.2. Appeals 43
2.2. Application of politeness strategies in collection letters 45
2.2.1.Tone 45
2.2.2. Appeals 48
PART III: CONCLUSION 50
1. Summary of findings 50
2. Implication of the study 51
3. Limitations of the study 52
4. Suggestions for further studies 52
REFERENCE 54
APPENDIXES
APPENDIXE 1: Inquiry letters
APPENDIXE 2: Collection letters

for people in different distance places and for people who are unable to frequently
travel a long way for business discussions.
Politeness principle and speech acts are vital in writing business
correspondence because they determine the effectiveness and success of the
communication purpose of a business letter. In Vietnam, there are a few studies in the
area of business letters analysis. Therefore, this investigation may be considered as a
contribution to this field. Moreover, Vietnamese people need to have necessary
knowledge of writing business correspondence to maintain and develop the
international trade relationship between Vietnam and other countries in the world.
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In the hope of finding how to write business letters effectively, I have chosen the
subject for my thesis: A study of language used in business correspondence in terms
of speech acts and politeness strategies.
2. Objectives of the study
Firstly, the research is expected to present, describe and analyze business letters
in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies.
Secondly, the researcher will give out the most dominant types of speech acts
and politeness strategies which are used.
Thirdly, from findings and discussion, the study makes some suggestion for
better writing business correspondence.
3. Research questions
The study was carried out with an aim to answering the two following
questions:
i. What are types of Speech acts that writers use in inquiry letters and
collection letters?
ii. What are politeness strategies that writers use in inquiry letters and
collection letters?
4. Scope of the study
Due to time limit and within the limitation of a graduation thesis, the research
cannot deal with all aspects of business correspondence. Therefore, it only

the research setting, participants, instruments of data collection as well as the
procedure employed to carry out data analysis.
Chapter III (Findings and discussion) presents and discusses the results that the
researcher found out from the collected data.
Part III (Conclusion) summarizes the key points, states the limitations and
suggests further studies.
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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides the literature review including the notions of speech acts
theory, theory of politeness strategies, business letters in English and its properties,
the definition of inquiry letter and collection letter and it explains how the researcher
fulfills some related studies.
1. Speech acts
1.1. Definition of speech acts
Speech acts theory has been studied and differently defined by different
theorists such as: Austin (1962), Grice (1975), Hymes (1964), Searle (1969), Levision
(1983), Brown & Yule (1983) and others.
In Hymes’s definition (1964, p. 13): “Speech acts are defined as the acts we
perform when we speak” such as giving reports, giving advice, agreeing, complaining,
apologizing… A speaker in saying, for example: “I’ll help you whenever you need
me”, in fact, is making a promise or an act of promising. One may talk to her friend:
“Why don’t you tell him the truth?” This question, in certain contexts, may be
understood as a suggestion and the speaker is performing the act of giving advice.
According to Searle (1969, p.24), language is a part of a theory of action, and
speech acts are those verbal acts such as promising, threatening, requesting that one
performs in speaking.
Austin (1962, p. 52) originally uses the term “Speech acts” to refer to an
utterance and the “total situation in which the utterance is used”. In addition, Austin

(ii) Representatives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker
believes to be the case or not. They state facts, assertions, conclusion, and descriptions.
Example 2:
- The earth is flat.
- It was a warm sunny day.
(iii) Expressives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels.
They express psychological states and can be statement of pleasures, pain, likes,
dislikes, joy, or sorrow. Some typical verbs used are: excuse, congratulate, and wish…
Example 3:
- I’m really sorry!
- Congratulation!
(iv) Directives are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to get someone
else to do something. They express what the speaker wants. They are commands,
orders, requests, suggestions conveyed by verbs as order, command, request, allow…
Example 4:
- Give me a cup of coffee.
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- Could you lend me a pen, please?
(v) Commisives are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to commit
themselves to some future actions. They express what the speaker intends. They are
promises, threats, refusals, pledges demonstrated by verbs: pledge, swear, promise,
offer…
Example 5:
- I’ll be back.
- We will not do that.
Similarly, G. Yule (1996, p. 55) summarizes these five fundamental functions
of speech acts in a table:
Speech act type Direction of fit
S = Speaker;
X = Situation

on the communication channels used are nonverbal communication and verbal
communication which is further divided into oral communication and written
communication. Therefore, the term “politeness” could be used to cover the study both
spoken and written language.
In the study in politeness theory, Leech (1980 and 1983) and Brown & Lesion
(1987) focus politeness as a pragmatic phenomenon. Leech defines politeness as a type
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Table 2: Basic types of direct speech acts - G. Yule (1996, p. 54)
of behavior that allows the participants to engage in a social interaction in an
atmosphere of relative harmony. He claims that politeness principle is necessary to
rescue the cooperative principle (be true, be brief, be relevant, be clear), which is
based on Grice’s maxims (1975). Besides, John, Gumperz and several other authors
(in Brown and Lesion, 1987, p. 13) consider politeness as “basic to the production of
social order, and a precondition of human cooperation”.
Yule (1996, p. 60) defines politeness in the light of pragmatics: politeness is
seen as “the idea of polite social behavior or etiquette within a culture”. More
concretely, politeness “is a number of different general principles for being polite in
social interaction within a particular culture.
2.2. Face
“Face” closely relates to the concept of politeness. The understanding of notion
of “face” is significant to understand politeness. Like “politeness”, “face” is also
defined differently, but the content is similar. According to Richards (1992, p. 135),
“in communication between two or more persons, the positive image or impression of
oneself that one shows or intends to show to the other participants is called Face”.
Yule (1996, p. 60) defines “Face” as the public self-image of a person. The
concept refers to that emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects
everyone else to recognize and the author adds that “politeness, in an interaction, can
be then defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face”.
If a person says something that represents a threat to another individual’s expectations
regarding self-image, it is considered as a face threatening face (FTA). Alternatively,

addressee (A) do anything which A does not want to do.
 Rule 2: Give options (used when informal politeness is required).
It is used to let A (addressee) make his own decisions – leave his options open
for him.
 Rule 3: Make A (addressee) feel good – be friendly (used when
intimate politeness is required).
It is often used conventionally when there is no real friendship left. This is the
rule that encourages feelings of camaraderie between Speaker and Addressee. The
main aim is to make the Addressee feel good and produce a sense of equality between
Speaker and Addressee.
On the other hand, Leech (1983, p. 132) introduces a number of maxims based
on the cost and benefit to the Hearer and the amount of optimality given to the Hearer.
The main maxims are:
Tact maxim
Minimize the cost to another
Maximize the benefit to another
Generosity maxim
Minimize benefit to ourselves
Maximize the cost to ourselves
Approbation
maxim
Minimize dispraise of other
Maximize praise of other
Modesty maxim
Minimize praise of ourselves
Maximize dispraise of ourselves
Agreement maxim
Minimize the expression of disagreement between self and
other
Maximize the expression of agreement between self and other

 Strategy 1: Bald on record
Eg: - A says to C: “You can’t smoke here.”
 Strategy 2: Positive politeness
Eg: - “You know they do have a section for smokers over there. Let’s go find it
so you can have a cigarette.”
 Strategy 3: Negative politeness
Eg: - Would you mind our asking you not to smoke in the nonsmoking
section?”
 Strategy 4: Off record (implicating)
Eg: - A says to B so that C can overhear: “I wonder if there is a smoking
section.”
 Strategy 5: Don’t do the FTA (refraining from the act)
Eg: C is smoking and A&B move away (No linguistic action).
They specify that speakers should respect each other’s expectation regarding
self-image, take account of their feelings, and avoid Face Threatening Acts (FTAs –
acts which threaten the face wants of the speaker, the hearer, or both of them). They
also propose 4 kinds of FTAs:
1. Acts threatening to the Hearer’s negative face
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E.g: ordering, suggesting, advising, reminding, threatening, warning, offering,
promising, complimenting.
2. Acts threatening to the Hearer’s positive face
E.g: disapproving, complaining, criticizing, disagreeing, accusing and raising
taboo topics.
3. Acts threatening to the Speaker’s negative face
E.g: accepting an offer, accepting thanks, excusing, promising unwillingly.
4. Acts threatening to the Speaker’s positive face
E.g: apologizing, accepting compliments, and confessing.
Brown and Levinson summarized a taxonomy of possible strategies for
performing FTAs in the following chart:

Like other texts, business letters have a clearly communicative purpose,
therefore, these types of texts will have some linguistic features denoted the inside
relationships of the texts and their own styles. Business letters with the seven “C’s” of
style will help you become more effective. The seven “C’s” are Convention, Clear,
Concise, Complete, Concrete, Constructive and Correct.
The four areas you must take into consideration for each business letters are
listed rhetorically as: Subject – Audience – Purpose – Style/Organization. Many letters
are sent with a specific subject and audience in mind, but are not clear in their purpose.
You must know why you are sending the letter and if the reader is to inform, if it is to
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Don’t do FTA
Figure 1: Flowchart of politeness strategies ordered against estimated threat to face
(Brown and Levinson, 1987, p. 60)
request information, and if it is to get the recipient to act on a request. All of these are
very different purposes. You have probably received a letter that, after reading it, left
you confused because you did not know exactly what it said as the purpose is not
clear.
3.2. The parts of a business letter
Business letters have many parts, some are compulsory and some are optional.
They may include:
1. Letterhead or Heading: The heading portion of a business letter
includes the writer's address.
2. Dateline: the date on which the letter is being prepared is typed a
few lines below the letterhead.
3. Inside address: The inside address shows the name and address of
the recipient of the letter.
4. Attention line: this is not always required. It should be used when
the letter is addressed to a company or organization as a whole, but you want it
to be handled by a specific individual at the company or within the
organization. It should be underlined or typed in capitals.

quotations, discount schedules, dealer prices, the name of a dealer or a local supplier,
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or free samples or materials. Letters of inquiry are also referred to as request letters.”
(Alan J. Bond, 2005, p. 9). The term ‘Inquiry’ is same as ‘Enquiry’. The former is
more commonly used in U.S. and the latter one is more common in U.K.
5. Collection letter
Collection letters are normally sent out to customers to remind them of
payments due for goods or services delivered or rendered by a company. Collection
letters are generally written in a series with increasing degrees of urgency and
insistence. The first collection letter is mildest and most understanding, with the
following letters getting gradually more insistent. The final letter in this series, when
all efforts have failed, gives customers one last brief period to respond before taking
action to turn the matter over to a lawyer or collection agency or court of law. An
effective letter of collection achieves its purpose without destroying the customers'
goodwill.
6. Related studies
In Vietnam, there are not many researchers attempting to analyze business
correspondence in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies. They focused mainly
on grammatical features and discourse analysis. However, the writer was still inspired
by Ngô Tùng Anh’s study “Analysis of the Language Often Used in Banking Business
Letters in Terms of Structure and Speech Acts” (1997). In his thesis for the degree of
Master of Art, Ngo Tung Anh seemed to take the first step in finding out speech acts
use in business letter included inquiry letter and collection letter. Nevertheless, he gave
overview of speech acts in each type of sentence presented in a table.
For those limitations of this study, the researcher came up with a decision to
conduct this thesis so as to bring more deep and detailed analysis on inquiry letter and
collection letter in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies.
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CHAPTER II
METHODOLOGY